How Old Is That Gas Station?

Many North Shore residents vaguely know that Lynnfield is home to some very, very vintage gas pumps on Salem Street heading toward Lynn. Over the years, I've heard some people say in passing that the station is the oldest one in America.

Previous efforts to get a story going on those gas pumps at Perley Burrill have come up dry (I'll try again eventually), and specific information about them seems to be scarce at best.

However, this week I came across a random bit of information while doing research through old newspapers for a . A short item that ran in the Nov. 30, 1939 issue of the short-lived Lynnfield Village Press sheds some additional light on this longtime town business and its origins.

The headline for the item was "Young Man Makes Good In Lynnfield," and noted that "Perley Burrill, a young man who has been a resident of this town for five years, has, through thrift, energy, perseverance, hard work and fair dealings with the public, built up a business that shows what aggressiveness and progressiveness can do."

So basically, we can deduce that the gas station is about 75 years old at this point, if Mr. Burrill did indeed move to town in 1934 and had his business thriving by late 1939.

In fact, the report also praised Mr. Burrill for taking over the Salem Street gas station "with its obsolete equipment" (buckets and siphons?) from a previous owner. "He has improved and modernized it so that it ranks among the best in the state," says the 1939 newspaper report, adding that Mr. Burrill, along with keeping three attendants on duty at his gas station, is also "now entering the heating oil field," which the business remains in to this day.

By the way, Perley Burrill does not have the distinction of being the oldest gas station in America. That honor apparently goes to Reighard's Gas Station of Altoona, Pennsylvania, which was established in 1909 - back when it was mostly horses that had gas.